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Spa oil/water temp gauges plug and play?


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I am going to be building my 420R kit soon and want to set it up to monitor oil temp. I know many people install a switch so that the water temp gauge can be dual-purpose. However I'm thinking of going with something like this:

 

https://www.spatechnique.com/store/itemDetail.cfm?prodID=593&catID=27

DG203-Small_copy.png

 

Anyone know if this is a simple install or requires some type of special adaptation?

 

Thanks

Edited by KnifeySpoony
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I think you want to monitor oil temp and not oil pressure? Your standard kit includes oil pressure gauge but not an oil temp gauge.

 

Yes you can do that. Fairly straightforward as I used a dual Racetech analog gauge on my old yellow Caterham SV to monitor oil pressure and oil temp. Hardest bit was working out where to tap the block for an oil temp sensor.

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Sorry that was a typo in my post. Subject line and link were correct. Plan is to keep the oil pressure gauge, replace water temp gauge with dual temp gauge.

 

I believe the 420R already is tapped for a temp send so that should be a non issue for me. I just know nothing about gauges, so didn't know if the signal from the existing water temp in the car would plug right into the Spa gauge.

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There’s an oil temp sender on the sump oil tank that’s allegedly not used by the ECU (even though there is wiring for it). I had some back and forth with Caterham about it during the build. I still have it connected to be sure, but you could maybe wire to that sender to your gauge so as to not interfere with the rest of the system?

 

Can also be accessed via Canbus/obd2, which is what I ended up doing.

Edited by sf4018
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I believe the 420R already is tapped for a temp send so that should be a non issue for me. I just know nothing about gauges, so didn't know if the signal from the existing water temp in the car would plug right into the Spa gauge.

 

 

Thats a bit of luck if the Duratec is already tapped for a sender. Its all electric and Caterham used pretty generic sensors so there is a fighting chance of it all working. The Spa kits come with all the needed sensors so worst case you swap out the Caterham oil temp sensor for the included Spa one. sf4018 makes a good point of wiring the oil temp direct to gauge - that was how I did it on my old zetec car.

 

593_temp_temp_harness.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Caterham water temp gauge uses a small plastic connector to wire off the main loom - seen below. The Spa version of the connector is larger because it is dual signal (oil temp and water temp). In that case you will have to remove the signal wires that connect to the plug pins from the Caterham water temp gauge connector and move them to the new Spa connector (shown as the white plug in the above photo) so it will plug in. The Spa instructions will hopefully have pin location maps for this.

 

water-temperature-gauge-silver-dial-face.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Resurrecting this as I'm finally getting to this install. As the pic you've inserted above shows, the Spa gauge comes with all wiring as well as 2 temp senders. Since there is no oil temp gauge currently, I will use their wiring independent of the standard wiring, although I'm not sure if those connector plugs will fit through the grommet in the scuttle along with the main harness. Hopefully it will. 

 

My question is regarding the water temp signal. Can I do the same for that? ie use the Spa-provided sender and wiring and just not use the water temp wiring in the harness? Or is the signal from the water temp sender used to control radiator fan or other stuff? Hence your earlier advice... Spa does provide plug/pin information, so I can splice into their connector if necessary.

 

Thanks

Edited by KnifeySpoony
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I'm trying to remember, but isn't the sender in the submarine for the gauge and a second sender for the ECU?  I'm thinking the second sender is down on the left hand side of the block where the plumbing connects.  Or maybe I'm just imagining all of this.

 

For those of us with a dry sump, the oil temperature sender is in the bottom of the sump tank.  My wiring harness doesn't have what is necessary to connect to it though, presumably because Caterham assumed I'll be  pulling wire to connect direct to a gauge.

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Hmmmm, I looking the wiring harness info in the 2015c build manual, but I can't figure out where the water temp sensor runs through, ie if it triggers the rad fan or not. I will ask Caterham.

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I assembled my yellow car in 2000, and I have two sensors one for the gauge and one to the ECU. The fan is connected to a separate sender mounted in the radiator near the top.  Don’t know how that compares to the more recent builds though.  Tom 

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  • 2 weeks later...

For what it’s worth, my 2013 kit has no connection between the engine and the sensor used for the gauge. I put in a different engine than what Caterham sells, but I used the Caterham water temp gauge/sensor. My fans are controlled by the ecu.

 

Daniel

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